War Zone Wrestling
From Bywpedia
History
WarZone Wrestling was started in April 2002, created by Mark Martel and Landyslam in Amsterdam, NY, and quickly partnered up with another local backyard wrestling group known as XCW, which was run by 2X, otherwise known as Xtreme. The two new promotions quickly ended up in a feud, when WZW's Landyslam won the XCW International title, and on the same day, Mark Martel won the XCW Heavyweight Championship against Xtreme and Hardcore. This led into the first Domination supercard on June 7th 2002, which was a WZW vs XCW showdown. While Landyslam retained his title, defending against a debuting Krazy Kidd, Mark Martel would lose the XCW championship that day to D-Zaster, and thus the federation war was over. With shows every Monday and Friday, the 2002 season was action-packed. Mondays would be WZW shows, and Fridays would be XCW shows. It is after this happened that the first WZW Champion was crowned. On July 12th, 2002, the vacant title was up for grabs in a 5-Way Elimination match. In that match, Krazy Kidd overcame the odds and defeated D-Zaster, Big Daddy, Landyslam, and Xtreme to win the championship. He would hold it until August, when he lost it to Hardcore at the King of Xtreme show, in a triple threat match with 2X. This match unified the XCW and WZW championships, and the WZW title would remain unseen for the rest of the year.
At the end of 2002, XCW folded under, and with 2003 coming up fast, Martel and Landy scrambled to put together a 2003 season for WZW. All of the WZW titles would be declared vacant, and at the first show of 2003, in April, Landyslam would defeat Flawless Jake to win the WZW Championship. The roster was small in 2003, with most shows only having 5 to 8 people participating, and without a video camera there isn't much to show for it. Landy would go on through the summer months retaining the title against challengers such as Maximum Illusion, Xtreme, Flawless Jake, and Krazy Kidd. However, on November 3rd, 2003, Landy tagged up with partner Kelvin Rodriguez to defend both the WZW Heavyweight and International titles against the team of Xtreme and Krazy Kidd, and in that match Landy's reign was finally ended, as Xtreme became the new WZW Champion, and Krazy Kidd became the International Champion. The two quickly showed their disloyalty to WZW though, and proclaimed themselves Team XCW, refusing to let go of their past federation. They recruited other fellow XCW wrestlers Flawless Jake and Jason Oh So Amazing as the 2004 season began, as it became an all out war between the two sides once again, with XCW seemingly being the outsiders in the situation this time. This all led up to XCW vs WZW Domination 2, on April 10th, 2004, and in the main event, Landyslam won the XCW & WZW Heavyweight titles, and the XCW International title, by overcoming the odds and winning the 45-Minute Iron Man Match for all three titles, against Krazy Kidd and Xtreme in a Triple Threat.
After Domination 2 was over and done with, XCW was gone for good. Landy was stripped of the title due to an awkward timing finish of the Iron Man Match and a poor referee call, and Krazy Kidd would win the title once again, by defeating his former partner Xtreme for the vacant belt. Krazy Kidd, Xtreme, Big Daddy, D-Zaster, and Jason Oh So Amazing all left WZW at this point to try and start their own federation due to not liking how Martel was running things, so with a major portion of the roster gone, including the WZW Champion, the title was vacated again, and WZW was forced to bring new blood into the federation. At this time, Martel decided that a new champion would be crowned on May 29th, 2004, in a 1 on 1 contest between Kelvin Rodriguez and Landyslam. Kelvin won the match, and it was revealed that he was being backed by Mark Martel. Kelvin and Landy would go back and forth all summer long, and Landy had long replaced Kelvin as his partner in the Solution with Kelvin's own brother, Rocco Rodriguez, who held the WZW Amsterdam title at the time. Over the course of the summer, Krazy Kidd and Xtreme returned to WZW after starting their own promotion failed. At WZW Desire of One 2004, Landy would finally get his shot at regaining the WZW Championship as he took on champion Kelvin Rodriguez in a 2 out of 3 falls match, in which the third fall was a chain match. Landy defeated Kelvin to win back his title, but his celebration was cut short as he was ambushed by the returning Jason Oh So Amazing, and beaten down by Jason, Martel, K-Rod, and Xtreme, as Martel proclaimed themselves "The Squad." This started a hatred between Landy and the Squad, and they battled regularly going into Dawn of a New Era 2005, where one of the Squad members would get a shot at Landy's WZW Championship in a Ladder Match. The week before the match, there was a Triple Threat match featuring Squad members JOSA, K-Rod, and 2X, with tagging special referees Martel, Big Guns, and V.Ice. If Landy would lose the Ladder match, he would have to leave WZW. 2X won the triple threat match, and at Dawn of a New Era 2005, defeated Landyslam to win the WZW Championship.
With Landy gone from WZW and nobody to stop the Squad, WZW basically self destructed by June. Martel would then announce a shoot reopening of WZW, and dropped all current champions and angles. The WZW title would be decided in a 12-Man Tournament on June 5th, and the winner ended up being K-Rod, claiming his 2nd WZW Championship win. The tournament also included D-Zaster, Rocco Rodriguez, Xtreme, Jake Adams, Damien Darkside, the Spanish Burrito, Triple M, Vanilla Ice Cream, Big Guns, and Jason Oh So Amazing. Kelvin would lose the title on June 19th to Krazy Kidd.
Going into Domination 3, Landyslam was allowed back into WZW, and targeted one of the Squad members who caused him to leave WZW in the first place, Vanilla Ice Cream. Landy would defeat him in the main event of Domination 3 in a Last Man Standing Match.
Krazy Kidd would continue to regularly defend the WZW title throughout the rest of 2005, holding the title for a record 343 days, and on May 28th, 2006, he lost the title to the up-and-coming Rocco Rodriguez in one of the best matches of the 2006 season. Rocco had climbed to the top of the newly introduced Rankings System, where wrestlers with the most wins would recieve title shots, and after the champion lost the title, he went to the bottom automatically. Rocco would only hold onto the title until July 9th, as Martel sprung the Go for the Gold Challenge on him, and Rocco obviously was unprepared for such a challenge. Xtreme, Landyslam, CJ Scott, Incarnation, and Krazy Kidd teamed up to eliminate the champion first, and Landyslam would walk out the champion once more.
The end of the 2006 season built towards a real-life major falling out between WZW co-owners Landyslam and Martel, and Landy walked out of WZW, and Martel ended the season early on September 12th.
As the 2007 season creeped closer, WZW stars started to travel to out of town interpromotional shows and supershows. The most notorious of the early traveling shows was the WZW vs UCW Wrestlebowl supercard. In the main event of this show, UCW representatives Chris Ambros, Alex Cross, and Marcus Centofante defeated WZW's representatives Jake Adams, Rocco Rodriguez, and "The JS" Justin Starr, but this show started a longtime working relationship between UCW and WZW that still lasts today.
2007 saw the retirement of longtime WZW mainstay Kelvin Rodriguez, and the active retirement of Xtreme due to injury. Krazy Kidd also became limited in his appearances during this year. However 2007 also saw the rise of new main event wrestlers including Manic and Dr. Sexy, while mainstays like Rocco Rodriguez, Jake Adams, and the Mad Mosher rose to a more prominant role. Mark Martel would start a new stable called Money Power Respect, and it included Dr Sexy, Big Guns, and TJ Cena. Manic would win the still vacant WZW title on June 17th, 2007, in a four way elimination match against Rocco, Dr. Sexy, and JT Dynomite. Also, WZW continued to travel to many supershows throughout the year, and even had out of town guests come in for Domination 5, as Minerva defeated WZW's Dr Sexy, and WZW's Jake Adams & Mad Mosher defeated FCW's Dandy Mike & The Bad Guy. Landyslam also made his WZW return in the Summer of 2007, and has stuck around sporadically since. At Domination 5, Manic retained the WZW title over Xtreme, but was outsmarted by Rocco Rodriguez who won the Rumble match that day, and used his title shot immediately after Manic's match. Rocco won the title, and would hold it going into 2008.
WZW kicked off 2008 by attending BYE 9, with representatives including Rocco Rodriguez, Dr. Sexy, Landyslam, Manic, and Mark Martel. However, as 2008 rolled on, a huge influx of rookies joined WZW that really weren't very good, and this caused a lot of the longtime WZW mainstays to lose interest and either leave for good, or become part time wrestlers. WZW lost Krazy Kidd completely in 2008, and saw both Rocco and Landy become part time. In this group of rookies, there were a few shining lights, noteably Scotty Skills, J2-Step, and Scuba Steve. Things remained fairly basic for the rest of the season, with the mainstay main event scene notably including Dr. Sexy, Incarnation, Mad Mosher, and JT Dynomite, until WZW and UCW came together on a regular basis, as Marcus Centofante and Robby Roberts joined the lineup on a regular basis. Also added to the mix in 2008 were wrestlers from RLSW, including Drake Cannon, AJ Badd, Genocide, and DC Jones. 2008 would close out with JT Dynomite losing the WZW Championship to Marcus Centofante, who also held the WZW Hardcore Title.
2009 blasted in with WZW vs UCW Wrestlebowl 3, the final Wrestlebowl show. On this weekend, Centofante would lose both of his titles thanks to interferance from AJ Badd. J2-Step took the WZW Hardcore Title from Centofante, and Landyslam would claim the WZW Championship for a record fourth time in the main event of Day 2. Landyslam's reign as champion had a damper put on it though, as he was injured at Wrestlefezt 8 in March 2009, with a slipped disc in his back and nerve damage. WZW continued on through March and April without Landy attending, but keeping him as champion. But during a furious rivalry between Martel's Cartel and Scotty Skills, Martel seemingly snapped. Martel had been overcome by his hatred for Scotty Skills, and claimed that if Scotty could defeat Dr. Sexy, he would leave WZW. Doc would end up beating Scotty, but Martel quit anyway, saying he didn't need WZW. This left a moment of bewilderment as to who would run WZW, but this is when Martel made the groundbreaking announcement that during his leave of absence, he would be leaving Martel's Cartel member TJ Cena in charge of WZW. In TJ's first action as temporary owner of WZW, he forced fellow Cartel member and WZW Champion Landyslam to appear at the show on May 17th. TJ proceeded to give Landy the F-U, and stripped him of the WZW Championship, as well as kicking him out of the Cartel, now known once again as Money Power Respect. TJ then awarded himself the title in one of the most controversial moments of the year. Cena would hold onto the title defending against many challengers, and retained many times, though it was rarely a clean finish. In his run as champion he defeated challengers such as Scotty Skills, BKW's Erebus, Freakshow, PEANUT's Rush, and Scuba Steve. His reign of terror would come to an end on June 28th, as Mark Martel made his return to WZW, reclaiming ownership. He ran in, seemingly attempting to help TJ in his defense against J2-Step, but accidentally caught TJ with a superkick. Martel made no attempt to reclaim Money Power Respect as his own stable, and stated he didn't need any of the members. Instead he found one person to back him up that he felt just needed a motivational push to start claiming victories, and that was Freakshow. This led into WZW Domination 7, which is one of the biggest and best WZW shows to date. J2-Step would walk out of the show still remaining as WZW Champion. Dr. Sexy, however, lost the WZW Hardcore Title to longtime rival Incarnation in an Ultimate Submission match. Money Power Respect then started to fall apart, as TJ Cena was the first man eliminated in the Rumble match, which was won by Marcus Centofante, granting him an automatic title shot at any time he wished.
With MPR out of the way now, Martel was still holding a strong dislike for Scotty Skills and wanting to claim the WZW title as his own through another wrestler once again. He started attempting to motivationally push Freakshow towards victory, but remained coming up short. Martel then added Scotty to his team, and knew with the two of them combined, Martel would help Scotty reach the title once and for all. Scotty and 2-Step would headline WZW's Fall Classic show in October, and in that match Scotty Skills finally won his first WZW Championship. Unfortunately for him, Centofante decided to immediately cash in his title shot after the match, and nailed Scotty with the Bedtime for the victory. He went on to defend the title twice the next day, once against Ian Finnegan, and once against B Cubed. Centofante held onto the title until Scotty got his rematch, in which he lost the belt to Scotty on Halloween 2009. Mark Martel at this show turned his back on Freakshow after a match against Dr. Sexy, as it was revealed Martel was the man who brought Dr. Sexy back into WZW after a temporary retirement after Domination 7. Martel would also go on to turn on Scotty Skills during the title match with a chairshot, but also hit Centofante with the chair.
Scotty would lose the WZW championship at a PEANUT supershow in November to PEANUT's Dandy Dan. The title stayed there during WZW's off season, and was defended regularly, with Dandy Dan retaining. On December 27th, WZW had one winter show, and in the main event of that show, Dr. Sexy defeated Scuba Steve to win the WZW Hardcore Title one more time with Martel behind him 100% once again. Dandy Dan however would lose the championship to "The Highbrid Assassin" Glenn "The Weatherman" Coonan "Rush." After this title change, WZW has declared the title vacant going into the 2010 WZW Season. Everyone at WZW is looking to make their 9th year the best season yet, with no plans of going away anytime soon.
